Erm... Did you not just witness what happened at Qantas? 'Fair Work' (sic) Australia I believe it's called!

Absolutely. It was a disgraceful of a Labor goverment to capitulate to that collection of incompetent spivs. I thought Keating was right; the government should have stayed out of it and left them to flounder. With friends like these etc. etc... however, the Libs would have done exactly the same thing.

Anyway, the Qantas dispute threads probably have their own dedicated server in PPRuNeland and I've contributed enough on the subject already (one of the QF PR poppets referred to me and Sunfish as 'resident insomniacs', which I was kind of pround of ).

Straw poll for the fun of it... Say you are a Caucus member and had to vote on Monday. Local issues aside, who would you vote for? Jools or Krudd? Me, Gillard (albiet grudgingly).

Others?

Last edited by Worrals in the wilds; 23rd Feb 2012 at 12:21.
Reason: bugger

Ours is being sentenced on Monday, having been found guilty of assaulting his neighbours with a golf club. ( Potential mandatory gaol sentence, despite the broader community feeling sympathy as he had the neighbours from hell.)

His deputy is being spoken to by Police following complaints from a couple of school girls that they regularly see him parading around his place naked when they walk to school.

We're only a month away from local gummint elections, so their colleagues elected a retiring alderman as the temporary mayor. But now he's donned the robes and chains, he's reconsidering his retirement plans.

I'll take that as a comment! At least with Jooliar you absolutely KNOW that when she opens her mouth it's not gospel truth

That is the exact problem we face.Very true that with both Rudd and Gillard we know we are not getting the gospel truth but with Tony Abbott we won't know until after we find out we have been shafted.A case of the devil you know

Quote:

Absolutely. It was a disgraceful of a Labor goverment to capitulate to that collection of incompetent spivs. I thought Keating was right; the government should have stayed out of it and left them to flounder. With friends like these etc. etc... however, the Libs would have done exactly the same thing.

Agreed,Keating was right and the Government should have called the Irishmans bluff and within a week or fortnight at worst the board would have called for his resignation.

I'd say that there are probably a lot of Australian embassy staff around the world relieved that Kev is not Foreign Minister any longer.

I'd also say it's fair to say that at this very moment the mining company execs are smiling while quaffing a very smooth cognac and enjoying a nice cigar.

It's a big ask for the electorate to re-elect a mob that is widely perceived as being the worst government Australia has ever had; Whitlam, Fraser and McMahon notwithstanding.

Gillard is well aware of this and her hope has been to turn things around over the next 18 months. While the theory is politically sound, on their collective performance since 2007, I'd suggest this is a big ask.

I doubt many of us are viewing an Abbott government with rose coloured glasses. But it's got to the stage where the majority of voters seem to be saying "anyone but labor/greens".

More than a few are no doubt saying "How can we trust labor's claims that Abbott is bad, when they've lied about so much else?"

Forget the carbon tax lie, just look at what Team Gillard has been trotting out in the last 36 hours compared with their statements over the past 5 years.

Smith seems to be the only senior Minister with a skerrick of common sense in his public utterings. But I'm expecting his ongoing mistreatment of Commodore Kafer (sp?) will eventually come back to bite him if he puts his head above the parapet.

The damage to the labor brand is not currently coming from the Rudd side.

@ Worrals - please explain this to me: "...Straw poll for the fun of it... Say you are a Caucus member and had to vote on Monday. Local issues aside, who would you vote for? Jools or Gillard? Me, Gillard (albiet grudgingly)."

Aren't Jools and Gillard one and the same? Or is it now that the really real Juliar (I will never lie to the electorate again) is going to emerge from the trainwreck.

Maybe that's the problem we are facing - whether it's KRudd or Juliar, there is no real difference - all deceit and dishonesty anyway.

D'oh and double d'oh. Call it a Freudian slip, but yeah, you got me. Thanks and edited accordingly. Blame either my own personal bias creeping in or the cut price plonk Bipolar Nicola wants to put an end to. Maybe that's not such a bad thing...

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I'd say that there are probably a lot of Australian embassy staff around the world relieved that Kev is not Foreign Minister any longer.

Not to mention RAAFies, airport staff and anyone else who has had the displeasure of dealing with the man. The trouble with being an arrogant jerk in Australia is that word leaks out very quickly, because there's only one degree of separation. Everyone knows a bloke. That's why most pollies, singers, movie stars and other b grade celebutards make sure they mind their manners. Not our Rudd though, he's far too important for that.

Quote:

I'd also say it's fair to say that at this very moment the mining company execs are smiling while quaffing a very smooth cognac and enjoying a nice cigar.

I'm sure they are, and that's neither the fault of the Libs or the electorate, or even the fault of the mining companies. Their goals are clear; dig stuff up and make money out of it. Use three dollar a day minions where the country's law allows it, otherwise pay the minimum allowed by local government and adhere to their pesky safety regulations as required. It's not the fault of the Libs, who have a clear 'pro big business' manifesto. Can't blame them for that, they make no secret of it.

IMO it's the fault of the current ALP, who have alienated everyone but the true fundamentalists. They can only run the 'vote for us cos the others are worse' argument for so long, before the majority say 'well, you may be right but we'll give it a shot, because you leave us with no alternative.'

I believe we're about to see that in Queensland. No-one (even their own true believers) likes the opposition all that much because they're not very likeable; no-one thinks they'll be very good, but equally, Labor have blown it so very badly that people will take that chance. When even people who go to work draped in Eureka flags are feeling ripped off, betrayed and used...you know there's trouble in the camp. Asset sales that were sprung on the state the day after the election; a public service hamstrung by incompetent Labor flunky appointments, money wasted on trendy shite while the Royal Brisbane Hospital struggles along with radiography machines out of the stone age and waiting lists for the waiting list administered by people who still don't know if they'll get paid this fortnight thanks to the payroll debacle...these are the legacies of Qld Labor.

They are also the legacies of a hopeless conservative opposition who preferred to spend their time knifing each other than coming up with a viable alternative, so make no mistake, they're equally culpable.

Maybe annihilation at the polls is the only way the ALP will realise that they've lost touch.

Maybe even after that they won't get it, because the ALP machine is now dominated by flunkies, advisors and other straight out of uni types who went into the machine a week after graduating. With a few notable exceptions, the last generation of real union organizers (ie people who worked in real jobs in real industries before getting involved) are now in their mid fifties and being marginalized by professional agitators. There's nothing wrong with having a degree but there's a lot wrong with being a professional politician, ie someone who has done nothing else. That's what we're seeing on both sides, and aren't they ugly.

Ever met any of 'em? I'm sure most of you have and from both sides of the house, whether local, state or federal. Aren't they babes in the woods? Aren't they koalas (not to be exported or shot at )? Don't they have a wide eyed stare every time someone brings up something relevant, bit of an 'Oh wow, what's that mean? Where's my aide to rescue me, this irritating person is asking difficult questions about stuff that happens outside the chamber' look? Of course in a matter of seconds the aide races in, removes the MP from difficulty and their sweet little world continues on its axis, while our dingy little world continues with the same problems. The MP pats him or herself on the back for 'consulting with the electorate' and the hoi polloi are left with an even sourer taste in their mouths.

They have all made themselves an irrelevance, the elected oligarchy who choose to become politicians in their late teenage years and for the most part, have done nothing else.

We're lucky in the sense that despite the ridiculous goings-on in Canberra, we have huge holes in the ground full of iron ore of which China will buy as much as we can shovel into ships. Even our hopeless ALP minority government hasn't been able to screw that up.

Worrasls, re your last post: do you have a bug planted in my living room?

You've made some very valid points there. In particular, we should borrow a rule from the ancient Greeks and the Romans: no one should be allowed to serve as a member of parliament before he or she has
(a) reached a minimum age (in today's world, I'd suggest 40) and
(b) passed a set number of hurdles (in today's world, I'd suggest holding a job in private enterprise for a few years would be one such hurdle)

...oh, and (c) one last rule, the 'slam the stable door after the horse has bolted' rule): under no circumstances should any woman be allowed to serve as a member of parliament if her name is Sarah Hanson-Young.